St. Pete Police Searching For Person Who Poisoned Neighbor's Dog

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – A St. Petersburg man believes someone in his neighborhood poisoned his dog.

And this wasn’t the first time.

Rob McMahon of 734 44th Ave. said his dog, Annabelle, was poisoned two years ago with a potentially lethal dose of Tylenol, according to St. Petersburg Police.

The poisoner left a message on McMahon’s door that read: “Shut your (expletive) dog up or we will. It barked nonstop.”

McMahon said it took three months for Annabelle to recover.

She wasn’t so lucky on March 10.

Once again, McMahon found a note on his door. This one read: “Your dog has barked nonstop for two nights straight. Shut him up. Your neighbors are tired of it. If you can’t keep him in, get rid of him. We’re tired of it.”

McMahon also found a bag of partially eaten dog food in his yard.

McMahon’s vet said the dog was fed an unidentified toxin that caused Annabelle to suffer kidney failure and convulsions for three days before killing her.

McMahon said he was devastated.

“It was horrible. She’s my baby,” he said. “I don’t have kids. That was my kid. I lost a piece of my heart.”

He promptly called St. Petersburg Police, but police haven’t had any luck finding the pet killer in the Placido Gardens neighborhood.

“We’re investigating one complaint of a dog being poisoned and we’ve heard rumors and hearsay of other dogs being poisoned but we haven’t been able to confirm them,” said St. Petersburg Police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez.

Fernandez said the department sent community service officers to the neighborhood Friday, March 30, and Monday, April 2, to see if they could locate any other neighbors whose dogs had been poisoned. But no one else has come forward.

Image via Robert McMahon